Live, from Scufflegrit Road

Not really, although I did pass under Scufflegrit Road while we were coming back from Arkansas. Took a short trip to visit the Natural State family members. Here's an interesting fact: Arkansas is actually located in Seattle. At least, that's what it seemed like, since it rained from the time we got there to the time we left. We got there Friday afternoon, and by Sunday afternoon, Jacob was in full-blown cabin fever mode. He REALLY likes his neighborhood perambulations, and when he doesn't get them, well, he lets you know it. Luckily, there was a honkin' big Wal-Mart near the father-in-law's place, so he got to do some inside perambulation, if there is such a thing.

Scufflegrit Road passes over Highway 78, which will one day be I-22 but for now is just one majorly awesome stretch of four-lane without the eleventy-billion signs that populate all the other interstates. I'm a committed capitalist, so I appreciate business and all that, but I could do with a little more scenery in my scenery.

Father-in-law lives in Batesville, Arkansas, and our route there takes us through rice-growing country, which fascinates me. Where I grew up, in south Alabama, peanuts, soybeans, cotton, corn, and a few other crops are commonplace. But all those grow in dirt, whereas rice grows in water, or at least flooded dirt. And my brain can't reconcile what is essentially farming a lake. U.S. 64 through Marion, Wynne, McCrory, and Augusta is surrounded by serpentine berms and acres of flat land, some of it already flooded. Monstrous four-wheel-drive tractors with multiple tires on each axle sit idle, ready to somehow plant, cultivate, and eventually harvest rice. I had enough trouble farming dirt, where you can see what you're doing. I shudder to think of the agricultural devastation I'd cause trying to farm water.

Also, Arkansas has "Highway Police" cars. I've never seen that term before. I know that's completely superfluous knowledge, but when you're the only conscious person in a car speeding toward Bald Knob, Ar., you tend to notice things like that.

I want to work there, just so I can answer the phone. (Sorry for the lack of quality, but such is life when it's Seattle weather and you're shooting subjects with a BlackBerry camera.)

Also saw this on the way up to Batesville.


Got to be secure in your manhood to pull into that lane.

Not a lot else to say, other than to point out that, if you're looking for something to do this weekend, Allendale County, SC has a big festival weekend.